Back in 2005, I used to work for what was then DrKW in their Digital Markets division. DM was their investment banking answer to the web buzz of the early 2000s. Sean Park, the head of the division, had made a personal killing on several tech floatation deals and had drank the digital koolaid. Ably assisted by an IT chief with a penchant for grand visions, he set about giving Dresdner’s corporate clients an investment banking answer to the consumer behemoths Betfair, Ebay, etc who were seemingly granting supernatural powers to anyone with an internet connection.
You can still view the Googlezon-inspired vision here. I left the bank a year later, but kept an eye on the Revolution platform. It failed miserably. The trouble was they were providing a great integrated digital service that no one in the city knew they wanted yet. Banking is a notoriously fickle industry, and change only happens when trusted relationships introduce it. Revolution’s newly recruited marketing team was manned with former developers, admin staff & inexperienced hires from other banks.
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